Artiva Biotherapeutics, an oncology company developing and commercialising primary allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell therapies to treat cancer, has announced the expansion of its US facilities in San Diego. The 52,000 sqft facility will include research and process development laboratories and a multi-suite GMP manufacturing centre to support NK and CAR-NK cell production for Artiva’s pipeline development and clinical trial supply.
The facility will be in addition to Artiva’s continued research and GMP manufacturing at its partner GC LabCell’s state-of-the-art 300,000 sqft Cell Center, which comprises research labs, process development labs, and a 50,000 sqft GMP cell therapy manufacturing facility in the Republic of Korea. It is anticipated to be completed in 2022.
"Artiva’s new San Diego R&D and manufacturing facility is an important element of the Company’s expansion and will support research and development for our evolving pipeline of optimised NK and CAR-NK cell therapies for the treatment of cancer," said Peter Flynn, PhD, COO of Artiva. "The custom-built manufacturing center will produce clinical product and position Artiva for pivotal studies and potential commercial supply."
"Artiva’s manufacturing-first approach, leveraging more than 10 years of pioneering NK cell therapy R&D by GC LabCell, has enabled us to successfully initiate clinical trials of our first allogeneic, cryopreserved, off-the-shelf NK cell therapy and positions us to file INDs on two novel and distinct CAR-NK cell therapy programs in 2022," added Fred Aslan, CEO of Artiva. "Now with our new facility, we continue to expand and build on our leadership position in the evolving field of allogeneic cell therapies."
Artiva’s cell therapies are designed to leverage the anti-tumour biology and safety features of NK cells. The therapies are reportedly optimised using the company’s AlloNK platform for targeted anti-cancer activity by either genetically expressing chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to drive tumour cell engagement or combining with therapeutic antibodies or innate-cell engagers for antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) enhancement. The company’s manufacturing platform supports large-scale production and cryopreservation of off-the-shelf allogeneic NK cell therapies and proprietary CAR-NK and NK-specific gene-editing technologies to augment therapeutic activity.